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Original1

 * During the 1948 Palestinian exodus, the substantial majority of Palestinian Arabs in areas of Mandate Palestine that became part of Israel (approx. 700,000-800,000 out of a population of 950,000), fled or were expelled, during and after the 1948 Palestine War. Massacres, like that at Deir Yassin, contributed to the expulsion process. At least 418 of the 863 Palestinian villages incorporated into what became Israel were totally depopulated.  These events, later described as ethnic cleansing by a number of commentators, are known to Palestinians as Al-Nakba ("the catastrophe"). During the 1967 Palestinian exodus, between 280,000-325,000 Palestinians, approximately 145,000 of which were refugees from the 1948 war, fled or were expelled by Israeli forces once again. Forced expulsion, or what is increasingly referred to as ethnic cleansing, is said to have continued after 1967, being particularly pronounced in the Seam Zone created as a result of the construction of the Separation barrier. John Dugard has characterized Israeli policy there as promoting, "de-Palestinization," while Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, in a May 2009 open letter to President Barack Obama, described Israeli policies in the occupied territories since the 1967 war as ethnic cleansing. AIPAC and other Israel lobby groups in the United States, "vehemently reject accusations of racism and of ethnic cleansing in Palestine, let alone genocide, aggressively terming them and any other criticisms of Israel as 'anti-Semitic slurs.'"

Rewrite1
Scholars disagree as to whether the ethnic cleansing that took place during the 1948 Palestine war was part of a Zionist strategy that was pre-planned, or was merely a function of war. Benny Morris for example, states there was no master plan for population transfer. He sees it as having taken place as a result of the war and views it as necessary, for without the uprooting of 700,000 Palestinians, the establishment of a Jewish state would not be possible. pp. 70-72


 * These events, later described as ethnic cleansing by a number of commentators, are known to Palestinians as Al-Nakba ("the catastrophe"). During the 1948 Palestinian exodus, the substantial majority of Palestinian Arabs in areas of Mandate Palestine that became part of Israel (approx. 700,000-800,000 out of a population of 950,000), fled or were expelled, during and after the 1948 Palestine War. Massacres, like that at Deir Yassin, contributed to the expulsion process. At least 418 of the 863 Palestinian villages incorporated into what became Israel were totally depopulated.   During the 1967 Palestinian exodus, between 280,000-325,000 Palestinians, approximately 145,000 of which were refugees from the 1948 war, fled or were expelled by Israeli forces once again. Forced expulsion, or what is increasingly referred to as ethnic cleansing, is said to have continued after 1967, being particularly pronounced in the Seam Zone created as a result of the construction of the Separation barrier. John Dugard has characterized Israeli policy there as promoting, "de-Palestinization," while Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, in a May 2009 open letter to President Barack Obama, described Israeli policies in the occupied territories since the 1967 war as ethnic cleansing. AIPAC and other Israel lobby groups in the United States, "vehemently reject accusations of racism and of ethnic cleansing in Palestine, let alone genocide, aggressively terming them and any other criticisms of Israel as 'anti-Semitic slurs.'"

Original2

 * Between the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the Six Day War in 1967, there was a Jewish exodus from Arab lands, in which 99 percent of Sephardic Jews (approximately 800,000 people) fled or were forced to leave Arab countries of North Africa and the Mediterranean. Many migrated to Israel; others to the United States and Europe. The Jews of Egypt and Libya were expelled while those of Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and North Africa left as a result of a coordinated effort among Arab governments to create physical and political insecurity. Most were forced to abandon their property.  Ashley Perry, editor of Middle East Strategic Information (MESI), and Avi Beker have described this as ethnic cleansing. A bipartisan resolution passed by the UN Congress in October 2003 characterized the Jewish exodus from Arab lands in similar terms, noting that they, "were forced to flee and in some cases brutally expelled amid coordinated violence and anti-Semitic incitement that amounted to ethnic cleansing." Ran HaCohen, while conceding that Jews faced harassment in Arab countries following the 1948 war, whether from the people and/or regimes, finds this characterization to be, "shamefully cynical when it is imputed by the very Zionists who demanded 'let my people go', or by the same Israel that did all it could to force those very countries to let their Jews leave."